The Happy Ending

Part Seventeen: Fantasy

***I apologize ahead of time if this makes you cringe, but I felt my characters deserved this after all the shit I put them through ;) My apologies in advance if this isn't at all realistic. ***

JAE
Not that anyone wants to hear that they have failed their senior year based on the amount of absences and incomplete assignments, but when Jae heard just that news, he wasn't surprised. He even welcomed it, knowing that he could complete all of the work needed to obtain his diploma without the drama of Ty, Jake, and the rest of his former friends, at summer school. An online option for said summer school was even available. He welcomed his options and decided to go online so that he wouldn't have to deal with physically attending that hell hole. He didn't think he could cope with willingly returning to the place where he almost died from a collapsed lung on a daily basis.

It was learned weeks later that Ty was arrested, like Jake, for assault and battery, but attempted murder was added when Ty admitted to no remorse to his actions, that he'd do it, again, if given the chance, and admitted that he intended to end Jae's life for being so disgusting and for snitching on Jake. Ty blamed Jae for Jake being in jail, and that his only regret was that Jordan had interrupted him, which allowed Jae to live.

Among the people who Jae felt relieved to no longer have to deal with was his parents, who he had come to formally refer to as the Porters. Without knowing about it until recently, Theresa had paid the Porters their wanted medical deductible for Jae's stay in the hospital when they showed up to the Martin household, unannounced and unwelcome, while Jae was at school, so they had nothing left to harass him about, and therefore he had nothing left to do but cut ties with them for good. When Jae went to discuss with Theresa about paying her back, hoping like hell she would accept some kind of payment system if he got a job, she simply scoffed and insisted he just do his best to pass his online classes and move forward to the next phase of life. She then went on to explain that even though Jae is 18, he's still in her care and still completing high school, so he should focus on his education and his health and let her worry about the rest, because that's what mothers do. So, with the medical bill taken care of (which Jae still planned on paying her back for, just in a different way), Jae planned on doing exactly what Theresa insisted upon... Focusing on his education and health.

It may have taken a few years of high school, and some brutal lessons, but the people who were worth all of Jae's efforts turned out to be Marius and Jordan and their moms. Theresa treated Jae as if he was her own son, and she provided for him a safe environment that allowed him to finally just be him. Not that any person his age would truly know themselves, but at least he had the freedom to find out.

And Marius' mom, Laurel, never failed to ask when the wedding would take place, and if he and Marius planned on adopting in the future because she did want to be the doting grandma that spoils her grandchild with sweets and staying up late and then sending said grandchild home to let Jae and Marius try to handle the sugar rush. Laurel also treated Jae as her own. No matter if he was at Theresa's or Laurel's house, he felt loved and accepted. And that mattered a lot to him.

What upset Jae was the fact that Marius, too, had to repeat his senior year. He was also given the option of summer school with the option to complete it online. Marius was an amazing human being, and the fact that he had missed so much school because of Jae and his former friends weighed heavily on Jae's shoulders. So they hashed it out while they were working out the details of their impending summer studies in Jae's bedroom while Jordan was next door in his bedroom preparing for his next phase of life: college. He had received the acceptance letter, yesterday.

"I'm not even upset, okay? It is NOT your fault, babe. And even if it was, I literally don't care! Why are you making this a bigger deal than what it really is, huh?" Marius tried reassuring.